


Possible (27/39)

by Mexta



Series: Possible [27]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, post-412
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 03:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2453240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mexta/pseuds/Mexta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the Gallaghers</p>
<p>(Apologies for posting one day late!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Possible (27/39)

"You working tonight?"

"I don't know." Mickey looked at Ian across the breakfast table. "Maybe. Why?"

"Fiona wants us to come over for dinner."

"Come over where?" Mickey said blankly, before he realized the obvious.

Ian kicked him under the table. "Our place, dumbass. My house."

"You wanna?"

"Sure." Ian shrugged. "Haven't been there in weeks. Why not?"

It was hard to figure Ian out sometimes. Mickey felt hesitant but he wasn't sure why. "All those Gallaghers, man?" he said finally. "You up for that?"

Ian laughed, taking his empty dish to the sink. "It's just my family. It'll be good to see them."

"See who?" Mandy asked, coming out of her bedroom.

"My family. Hey, you should come too, Mandz."

"Come where?" she said languidly.

Mickey lit a cigarette while Mandy caught up, and used the time to think about Ian's suggestion. It's not like he hadn't spent plenty of time at the Gallagher house in the past. It seemed a bit odd to be issued a dinner invitation for the place where he used to pad around in his boxers, but Ian seemed to like the idea and anything that got him interested and out of the house had to be a good thing, didn't it?

Mandy, on the other hand, sounded a little reluctant to commit. She kept asking who would be there, which Ian didn't know exactly, but eventually she agreed to join them.

"So you can make it, Mickey?" Ian said, turning back to him.

"I'm invited?" Mickey said, half stalling, and half wondering.

"Course. We should bring Svetlana and the baby too."

"The fuck? Why would we do that?"

"Jesus, Mick," Mandy said impatiently. "She's your wife."

"I'm divorcing her."

" _What_?" 

" _What_?"

Ian and Mandy both stared at him, and Mickey felt like staring at himself. Where had that come from? 

And yet, now it was out there, he realized the idea wasn't that foreign to him. Somewhere along the way, he had formed the intention without ever thinking about it. "Why wouldn't I?" he said finally.

"But -- your son," Ian said. "Where's he going to live?"

"I'm not kickin' them out," Mickey said, still putting the pieces together in his own mind. He got up and went to the fridge for a beer, shrugging with his cigarette. "She and her -- _ladyfriend_ can stay here. I just ... wanna make it official."

Mandy was watching him, and he found himself avoiding her gaze. "Before dad gets out," she suggested, deadpan. 

"When are we supposed to go over?" Mickey asked, ignoring her.

Ian glanced from Mandy to Mickey with a look that said he understood more than he was letting on. "Dinner time I guess. I'll go see if Svetlana wants to come." 

***

In the late afternoon, they walked over to the Gallaghers' house together - Mickey half on edge and half looking forward to a decent meal; Mandy strangely withdrawn; Ian pushing Yevgeni's stroller; Svetlana and Nika looking like they were on a date.

"Don't be thinking you get to take the night off for free," Mickey grumbled at them. 

Svetlana gave him her wolfish grin. "I work extra hours to make up time. You pay Iggy for covering for you?"

"You worry about your fucking job and I'll worry about mine," Mickey said. And in truth he was worried. Since Kev had been complaining about his regular absences, he'd taken to offering his brothers a cut of the proceeds from the tug shop in exchange for taking on a few shifts. Which kind of made it a family business, but reduced his share of the profits still further. So far, with all the Milkovich siblings pooling their funds for household costs and the boys taking on occasional side jobs or deliveries they were getting by even without Terry's income, but once Mandy or any of the brothers left, things would get a lot tighter.

At the Gallaghers, Ian ran up the front steps with a sudden burst of energy and pushed open the door. In a moment he and the baby were swarmed with siblings, hugging and cooing, leaving the rest of them standing around the front room awkwardly. 

"Hey, Mickey," Carl said after a minute, detaching himself from the rest of the crowd. The metal on his teeth gleamed as he smirked. "How's that homework going?" 

Mickey glanced over quickly to make sure Ian was still distracted, then gathered up Carl's shirtfront and pushed him around the corner into the little nook under the stairs. 

"Hey," Carl protested, "That any way to treat your tutor?"

Mickey took in a breath and aimed for a balance between threatening and obliged. "Yeah, okay, kid. I appreciate the help -- "

"Which I don't even charge you for," Carl put in. 

" ... which is a decent for you to do to support the dude who's supporting your brother," Mickey said.

"Not to mention all the reading material I been loaning you."

Mickey resisted the urge to shake him. "Also appreciated. But look, man. I don't want Ian hearing anything about this tonight. All right?"

Carl looked innocent. "You want me to keep quiet about all your hard work, Mickey?"

"Seriously, man. He's got enough on his mind right now. He don't need to know anything about my issues. Okay?"

For once Carl seemed to drop the act and looked genuinely curious. "Why don't you want him to know?"

Mickey searched for a reason that would have some truth in it. "Because it'll just get him asking a bunch of questions I don't know the fucking answers to. I don't wanna have that conversation right now." He looked at Carl, who was still staring at him uncomprehendingly. "I'll tell him more when there's ... more to tell him."

After a moment Carl shrugged. "Suit yourself. I got a couple new Iron Man issues, want me to get them for you?"

"Maybe later, man." Mickey went back to the main room to see how Ian was doing. He seemed comfortable and relaxed, so after a while Mickey stopped worrying about him quite as much. 

Dinner was one of those big Gallagher gatherings, with Kev and Veronica bringing their babies over, along with crazy Sheila from next door, and a couple of other people Mickey didn't even recognize, though no sign of Frank. With so many people they couldn't very well fit inside the house but it was a nice evening and they soon spilled outside, letting all three babies crawl around in the yard and rigging up a few barricades to keep them penned in. For dinner they dragged a couple of tables and a bunch of chairs into the lot beside the house, right in front of that above-ground cesspool Ian insisted on referring to as a swimming pool. 

Mickey found a beer and a chair and lit up, making small talk with Kev, but mostly he watched what other people were doing. He could see that Mandy spent much of her time girl-talking with Debbie and ignoring Lip, who seemed to have some kind of sorority chick with him. Svetlana and Nika hit it off with Veronica, exchanging stories and picking up Vee's advice on running personal web-cam sessions. Mickey had a feeling Svetlana meant to go into business for herself soon enough, but he didn't want to worry about that tonight. 

As for Ian, he seemed to be making the rounds between everyone he hadn't seen for a while -- Carl and Debbie, Sheila, Veronica and her babies. Mickey could hear the solicitous voices, the way they all asked how Ian was doing, whether things were getting better, had he started going back to school. At first Mickey stiffened every time he overheard one of those questions but it turned out Ian had no trouble dodging them; he'd make some innocuous response that gave no details and change the subject, asking about the other person or something completely unrelated. After a while Mickey stopped paying such close attention.

Dinner was a decent spread -- apparently Fiona's new man had money, or wanted to look like he did anyway -- and Mickey took advantage of it; nice to have something besides cereal for dinner without having to pay for it. When all the food had been eaten the music got turned up, the harder liquor and weed came out, someone made a fire in an old oil drum, and people began wandering in off the street. It was shaping up into a regular old-fashioned block party.

As the crowd grew and the late summer dusk deepened, Mickey almost lost track of Ian. When it occurred to him that he hadn't seen his boyfriend in a while, and a quick spin around the yard only revealed one female redhead, Mickey decide he might as well take a look inside; he needed another beer anyway. Not that he hadn't had a few already.

He pulled open the back door and for a moment the house seemed eerily dark and quiet after the racket going on outside. Mickey stumbled over to the fridge, fished out a beer, then stuck his head into the living room. 

They were in there; Fiona leaning against the back of the couch, Lip beside it, both of them facing Ian, who stood against the stair railing with that old, inscrutable expression that Mickey had always hated.

"Oh, there you are, Gallagher," Mickey said, then waved his beer can expansively. "Galla _ghers_ , I mean."

All three of them turned toward him, and Mickey wondered why they all looked so serious. "It's a party," he explained, trying to be helpful. "Should be outside. Where the party is."

"Actually, I'm pretty bushed," Ian said, pushing himself away from the railings. "You about ready to leave, Mickey?"

Leave? Mickey furrowed his brow, contemplating that. Yes, leaving sounded fine. "Kay," he said. "Just gotta find Carl," he added, vaguely remembering something. "He -- he's got something for me. I wonder what."

"Hey, Ian," Fiona said, putting out a hand to touch Ian's arm as he passed by her. "You look tired. Why don't you just stay here tonight?"

Lip shot Fiona a glance, then added, "Both of you."

"Nah." Ian gave Mickey a little smile and bumped his hip as he came over. "Not much room for us here."

"You can have the bedroom," Lip offered.

Mickey couldn't help lifting an eyebrow -- or maybe both of them, it was hard to tell -- at Ian hopefully. It did seem like a long walk home, now that they mentioned it.

But Ian didn't pause, just continued on his way to the back door. "Nah," he repeated again. "Just gonna say good night to the others, then we'll get going. Coming, Mick?"

"Yeah," Mickey said sadly, following him to the door. As they went back out to the noise and the crowd and the firelight, Ian put an arm around his shoulder and squeezed it, and then Mickey couldn't remember what there had ever have been to feel sad about.


End file.
